Animal & Bird
Medical Center of Temple
Dr. Mary Carpino
(254) 899-8800
"Where we treat your pet like our own"
Dr.Carpino & her dog Katie
If you see your pet's picture on our site you will get 5% off that week!
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Medical Center of Temple Dr. Mary Carpino (254) 899-8800 "Where we treat your pet like our own" Dr.Carpino & her dog Katie If you see your pet's picture on our site you will get 5% off that week! |
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The Nuts & Bolts of Senior Pets.
National Senior Pet Month
National Senior Pet Month is when we get together and take a long, hard look at our senior and geriatric pets. Sometimes things that might be perceived as normal aging, and something that is not fixable, may indeed be treatable. The advancements of veterinary medicine since your senior pets were born or hatched, are significant and outstanding. We can now actually heal many Arthritis conditions with a series of injections. It should not be considered normal for your dog to stare at a wall like he forgot it was there. There is a daily pill now for this disorder (Cognitive Dysfunction). It should not be considered normal for your dog or cat to urinate inappropriately just because they are older. We need to find out why he or she is doing that (kidney, bladder, diabetes, Addison’s disease, sphincter issues, behavior, Cushing's Disease) and treat the underlying problem. Our goal is to keep your pet around with a great quality of life for the longest time possible. If you are exhausted from cleaning up urine messes, or your pet is banished to the outside most of the time because you are concerned about the potential urine messes, then neither of you is getting the interaction level you used to have. Sometimes owners are afraid to bring their pet in because the problem might be bad and untreatable and they would rather not know. However, we have had many cases of geriatric dogs and cats where the primary reason for inappropriate urination was a simple urinary tract infection which cleared up with antibiotics. So we never presume the worst case. We may discuss it because we want you to be able to make informed decisions, but we look at your pet and decides what it is that your pet needs specifically.
Bring your pet in. Let’s see what we can do.
What makes your pet senior or geriatric?
A good rule of thumb is that pets age 7 years for each of our human years. However, it is more complicated than that. Smaller pets tend to live longer lifes and larger ones tend to live shorter lives. So there is actually a sliding scale depending upon your pet’s size to determine what your pet’s age is. You can look at our chart to find our where your pet is on the scale.
As we age, people and dogs and cats and birds, our body systems get worn out. Most older cats are likely to have kidney disease. Most older dogs have arthritis. Do they tell us? No, of course not. They just move slower or lose weight from eating less.
Fortunateley, if we catch certain conditions early, we can really improve the quality of life for our pets, and in many cases actually extend the anticipated lifespan for our pets. This is especially true in the cases of kidney disease and obesity. Dietary control on both of these conditions, if started soon enough, has been shown to extend lifespan.
First, let’s get an examination on your senior or geriatric pet. Younger animals should get an exam every 6 months, but on seniors, we should now see them every 4 months. We don’t need to do everything on the first exam. We will prioritize. It will depend upon what you are seeing at home, in conjunction with what Dr. Carpino finds on the examination.
An easy thing to do first is to
look at our checklist
Then call for an appointment 899-8800. We now have Saturday and Sunday hours (3 days/month) for your convenience. |
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Send mail to
AnimalandBird@cs.com with
questions or comments about this web site. |
